Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2020 April 7

= April 7 =

Weird feature in Millennium Mansions
A question to home owners or architects: McMansions frequently feature a box that is weirdly attached to a rear or side facade. Does anybody know what it is? Obviously not an AC, otherwise it would not be completely enclosed. --Stilfehler (talk) 14:08, 7 April 2020 (UTC)
 * "Frequently feature" is unproven except that you've pulled pictures of three houses from the same neighborhood, built by the same builder and architect, so they are likely to share similar architectural features. When you say to yourself "I just noticed..." the most important part of that is the "I" and anything that comes after the "I" is probably not universally true beyond what you have noticed.  Regardless, in this one case, those are most likely for natural-gas fireplaces like this design.  The give-away is the external vent on the outside of each of those; those types of vents are indicative that on the other side of the wall is some kind of heating device; the fact that those protrusions are all directly against a major living space in the house, and not tucked away in a garage means that its for a heating device designed to be visible in the living space, hence gas fireplace.  The protrusion is just how the builder maximizes floor space so that the fireplace isn't taking up as much of the room they are placed in.-- Jayron 32 16:36, 7 April 2020 (UTC)
 * That explains it. Thank you so much! --Stilfehler (talk) 17:09, 7 April 2020 (UTC)
 * The builder could construct an entire chimney, and then it would be more obvious. The unfortunate visual effect in your examples is that it looks like an old house that just got indoor plumbing and hence an add-on bathroom. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 20:01, 7 April 2020 (UTC)
 * If deciding there was in it the call for an extra effort in landscape architecture I'd see in it, for the associated deviance an obsession with camouflage. The first two look like the giant vintage wall mounted ashtray and Wikipedia's ashtray does not come in contradiction with that visual fancy. --Askedonty (talk) 02:32, 8 April 2020 (UTC)
 * ??? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 14:59, 8 April 2020 (UTC)
 * I was thinking of drawer ashtrays of that shape, which were so ubiquituous in public transportation in Europe and in the UK in the past that I used to assimilate them to the figure of the state in a way; not the most positive way certainly but the cigar of the powerfull at the world decisive meetings. I did not find that shape referred to regarding the USA indeed (google search, bing). --Askedonty (talk) 10:10, 10 April 2020 (UTC)
 * I'd say more a giant wall-mounted post box. --Lambiam 19:52, 8 April 2020 (UTC)


 * In line with Bugs's mention of an "add-on bathroom", such a thing does rather resemble a medieval garderobe or de:Aborterker. Deor (talk) 16:14, 9 April 2020 (UTC)